


the more things change

by CostcoOfYourDreams



Series: the meaning of love [3]
Category: AI: The Somnium Files (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, I cannot emphasize that enough, Major Spoilers, Post-Canon, Slight Alternate Universe, Spoilers, hrggg it's me the hurt/comfort merchant come get your goods, i'm always sad about date and aiba, post true ending, uhh what else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 11:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21075368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CostcoOfYourDreams/pseuds/CostcoOfYourDreams
Summary: Aiba does not call Mizuki in that final confrontation with the New Cyclops Killer. Date is left to explain.





	the more things change

**Author's Note:**

> major major major spoilers for true ending please do not read this if you have not finished the game!

Date’s been out all night, something that Mizuki is accustomed to, but the lack of communication from him makes her nervous. He always sends a text or something to let her know he’s gonna be late, but tonight has been suspiciously quiet.

Mizuki gets a call from a number she vaguely recognizes as Date’s boss. She had called earlier in the week to check up on Mizuki at Date’s behest. At least, Mizuki thought it was because of Date that she called, but she could never really be sure. The number hardly matters to her, as she answers the phone as soon as it starts ringing. Date’s boss has to know something.

“Is Date okay?” is the first thing that comes out of her mouth.

“Mizuki…” Boss says, “Date’s-- he’s fine, but a little injured.”

“What happened?” 

“It’ll be easier to tell you in person. I’ll be there soon.” 

Mizuki nods, then remembers Boss can’t see her, and says quiet, “Okay.” She waits on the couch, clutching Adorabbit close to her chest. Adorabbit is-- ugly, beyond ugly, but Date gave it to her. She stays there, hunched over until there is a knock at the door. Mizuki goes to put Adorabbit down, but ends up holding onto it for the time being. 

She opens the door and it’s Boss waiting outside the door, just like she said she would be. She says nothing, but offers a hand to Mizuki. Mizuki pushes past her into the hall, and asks, “Where’s Date?” 

“He’s at the ABIS infirmary, recovering. We couldn’t take him to a regular hospital, because…” Boss trails off, lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed. It’s clear to Mizuki that she doesn’t know what to say next. 

“What’s wrong with him? Is he gonna live?”

Boss bites her lip. “Date’s had a rough night. He lost someone important to him, and confronted the New Cyclops Killer.”

“The person who killed mom?” 

“Yeah.” 

Mizuki stares intently at Adorabbit’s face. She knew Date didn’t want her around the case because he’s a stupid old man, but the fact that he went up against someone like the New Cyclops Killer without even-- he didn’t ask for her help, and he  _ knows _ how strong she is. 

They continue in silence until Boss says, as they sit in the parking lot for ABIS headquarters, “Date’s not going to be the same, Mizuki.”

“What do you mean?”

Boss is silent, and opens the door for the driver’s seat. Mizuki does the same for her side of the car. Boss is waiting for her by the entrance to headquarters. She doesn’t seem able to look Mizuki in the face. 

“What happened to Date?” Mizuki asks firmly once more. It’s so easy to be annoyed and frustrated, so much easier than addressing the fear and terror that’s slowly growing underneath her calm exterior. She’s spent so long doing nothing, knowing nothing, that now that she has the chance for answers, she’d do anything for them. 

“Let’s go see him,” Boss says without any emotion in her voice. Mizuki can see, however, that her eyebrows are furrowed and lips downturned. She looks absolutely miserable, Mizuki thinks. How bad is Date?

The ride down the elevator is spent in awkward silence, as Mizuki had realized that she would get nothing from Boss other than what she had already gotten.

They are in a part of ABIS headquarters that Mizuki has never seen before, the walls all white, exactly like a hospital. There are only a few rooms though, and she sees that the one closest to her has the name “Kaname Date” printed on it. She rushes for it, Adorabbit held loosely in one hand. 

She throws the door open, not with all her strength, but with enough to make it slam against the wall. There is a stranger sitting in bed, a man with dark hair and a single gray eye. He jerks up in the hospital bed the moment the door slams behind Mizuki.

Mizuki’s first impression is that he looks incredibly tired, then realizes that he’s the man who she saw on television for breaking out of prison. 

Her eyes widen and she snarls, “Where’s Date?” before raising Adorabbit like her pipe, then, realising her mistake, lowers it and raises her open fist. 

“What the hell, Boss?” the man ignores her and asks of Boss, who is standing behind Mizuki. “I asked you specifically  _ not  _ to bring her here.”

Boss stares intently at the man-- #89, that was his “name,” or the closest thing the prisoner had to one. Mizuki glares at him, #89’s eye locked onto Mizuki’s. 

“I brought her here because she deserves to know.”   
“But--”

“Damn it, Date!” Boss exclaims, and Mizuki draws back. Boss made it sound like she’s talking to Date, but the only person in the room other than her and Boss is #89. “I know you’re hurting, but she deserves to know. You’ve been pushing her away so much lately.” 

#89 looks beyond tired, and sad, and lonely, and Mizuki understands, Mizuki feels the same way, but she wants  _ Date _ , not this criminal. She wants her-- roommate.

#89 closes his eye and leans back onto the bed. “Fine,” he says, the word breathy and not so much an acquiescence as it is a surrender. “Mizuki…”

“You’re the prisoner from the news.” 

He looks at his body as though it’s new to him. The hospital gown he is wearing is rumpled, as though someone threw it on him in a hurry. “Yeah,” #89 says eventually, “I suppose I am. But… I guess I’m not, too.” 

Mizuki furrows her eyebrows and galres at the man. “I don’t want your story, I want Date.” 

“I know, Mizuki,” he says. 

“How do you know my name?”

“I-- Mizuki, it’s  _ me. _ It’s Date.”

The room feels like it’s spinning, and Mizuki reels. She looks at Boss for something, anything, but she just nods solemnly. Adorabbit is suddenly held tightly to her chest, a stabilizing force in the whirlwind she’s just been thrown into. 

“Date…?” 

#89’s--  _ Date’s  _ eye softens, “Yeah, kiddo. It’s me.” 

“Don’t call be kid,” Mizuki bites back on instinct, then softens. “What happened to you?” Behind her, there is the clacking of heels against the linoleum floor. Mizuki turns and sees Boss leaving, her job evidently done. 

At Mizuki’s questioning look, she says, “You two need some alone time. Now that I know you’re not going to beat Date over the head with your stuffed animal, it’s time for me to leave.”

“You don’t know that,” Mizuki says, with no real heat. Date snorts, and Boss smiles sadly and lifts a hand in goodbye. 

“You didn’t answer my question,” she says as she turns back to Date after Boss has left. 

“You know when I went into your somnium? How I was only supposed to be in there for six minutes?”

“Yeah?”

“The Psync machine-- what we use to go into people’s somniums-- can be used to switch bodies if you stay in there for more than six minutes.”

In a way, it almost makes sense, but Mizuki’s still… It’s hard to reconcile the criminal with her roommate. 

“So #89 forced you to switch bodies with him? Why would he want your body?”

“...It wasn’t my body.”

“Huh?”

“The person who was in Falco’s-- #89’s body wasn’t the original owner. Just like I wasn’t the original owner of the body I was in for the past six years. This… this is my body.”

Mizuki stares at Date. The stubble on his chin, the dark hair, the impossibly tired eyes and deep lines set into his face that make him look even more tired… Everything is wrong. Date’s not supposed to have dark hair, or look so defeated. Beyond physical appearances, it’s the immense pain present in his expression that makes it impossible for her to see this man as Date. 

Mizuki says nothing, and Date sighs. “I recovered some of my memories, too.” 

“Really?” 

“I wasn’t a good person. I did-- some truly horrible things. Things that I can never be forgiven for.”

Mizuki scoffs. “Who are you to decide that?” Date makes a confused sound, but before he can speak Mizuki continues, “I’ve already forgiven you for being a bad roommate these past few days, so I guess I can forgive you for your past too. Besides, you wouldn’t do the bad things again, right?”

“No, but--”

“Then you’re fine, Date. We can’t change the past. All we can do is move on and try to be better than we were before.” 

“When did I get stuck with a philosopher for a roommate?” 

“Shut up you perverted old man. I’m only saying this because you pay rent.” 

Date lets out a startled laugh. “That’s-- okay, fine. Say that what you said is true. What do I do next? How do I keep going?” His voice is desperate, and his eye wild. There’s something in his expression that tells Mizuki that this isn’t just about his past. He seems to realize what he said and closes his eye and untenses his face. “Sorry, you shouldn’t have to deal with an old-man’s problems.”

It’s the first time Mizuki’s ever heard Date refer to himself as an old man, and it throws her off guard. He’s-- she says he is a lot, but she knows he’s actually not. He’s not that old, or at least he wasn’t. He seems a bit older now, both in mind and body. It still doesn’t seem right for him to be calling himself that.

“Only I get to call you that,” Mizuki mutters.

Date lets out a single breathless laugh. It’s almost like he’s forcing himself to laugh, and Mizuki remembers what Boss told her earlier, about Date having lost someone close to him.

“You lost someone important to you?” she questions. 

Date starts, eye closed. When he talks, he looks like someone is pulling off his fingernails. “Yeah. I-- she was my partner.” He opens his eye and focuses on a point just over Mizuki’s shoulder. “Real bad attitude. Total party-killer. But she was… always there.” Mizuki stays quiet, and Date goes on, unprompted. “She was-- you know how my left eye was a fake? She was in my left eye, an artificial intelligence that connected directly to my brain.”

“Oh, so you weren’t just delusional? She was why you were always talking to yourself?”

“I--” Date almost sounds like he wants to argue, but he deflates. “Yeah. ‘Cept I wasn’t talking to myself, I was talking to  _ her _ .” 

Mizuki decides it’s too soon to ask what happened to her, so ends up saying, “Why didn’t you call me when you were going to confront the New Cyclops Killer?” 

“Saito-- the New Cyclops Killer-- had me incapacitated. While I was down, Aiba called some people but I think she didn’t call you because she didn’t want you to get hurt.” 

Aiba must have been Date’s partner. “Then why didn’t you tell her to, Date? You know I could’ve beat the New-- Saito into the ground.” Mizuki’s throat closes, and she forces out her next words, “Why are you always leaving me behind?” 

“I was in… uh, this body at that point. I no longer had access to Aiba; I didn’t know she was calling anyone at all.”

“Stop it, Date. You almost died, and you didn’t even think of me, did you?” Mizuki’s voice is quiet as she stares intently at the floor. 

“Of course I thought of you!” the unfamiliar voice shouts back. “Mizuki, how could I not? With Shoko and Renju dead, if I--”  
“Daddy’s dead?”   
“You mean Boss didn’t--? Oh Mizuki, I’m--” 

“Daddy’s  _ dead _ ?” 

“Oh,  _ Mizuki, _ ” Date whispers as Mizuki’s eyes brim over with tears. She holds Adorabbit tight, then moves to Date’s side on impulse. She sits down on the bed next to him, and sobs into the rabbit’s plush fur. Date moves, and suddenly Mizuki is enveloped in a warm hug. Adorabbit is sandwiched between the two of them, and Mizuki cries even harder. They stay like that for a while, and Mizuki swears she feels warm tears falling on her head. This makes her cry even harder; Date  _ never  _ cries.

When they part, Mizuki wipes her eyes. “Do you wanna come home?” she asks the face she hardly knows, whose eyes are as red and puffy as hers. 

Date gives her an apologetic smiles, “Sorry, Mizuki, they want to keep me for observation. Swapping bodies is dangerous, and they want to make sure there’s no bad side-effects. Plus, my eye is…” 

“Fine then, guess I’m staying with you. Scoot over.”

“What?”

“Did your ears get damaged in the fight too? I said shove over, I’m gonna stay with you.” 

Date’s ensuing smile is hesitant, but for a moment the clouds in his eye part, and he awkwardly moves over, careful not to disturb the equipment that is strapped to him. 

Mizuki climbs in, putting Adorabbit between the two of them. When she does, Date looks at the stuffed toy as though he is just seeing it for the first time. 

“You brought Adorabbit?”

“You still have one working eye, don’t you?” Mizuki bites out. Date huffs and shifts as Mizuki settles in. She leaves Adorabbit next to Date. He needs it as much as she does. 

“I thought you thought it was ugly.”

“It is. Ugliest thing I’ve ever had to look at, other than your face.” 

“Which one?” 

“They’re both ugly, ‘cause they’re both yours. Any face that is Date’s is ugly by default.” Date laughs, a real one this time, not a half-hearted one, but a genuine laugh that Mizuki so rarely gets to hear. It’s not a bad laugh, though it’s definitely better than the fake, hurt laugh Date’s been touting ever since she saw him.

Most importantly though, behind the new voice and new face and sadness and pain, it’s undeniably Date. 

Maybe it won’t be as hard to get used to Date’s new body as she thought, Mizuki thinks as she drifts off to sleep, Adorabbit clutched in her arms.

**Author's Note:**

> so uh here i am, back again. man i love ai. 
> 
> this was really fun to write, so thank you for reading and indulging me! the people in this fandom have been too kind to me. 
> 
> i hope you enjoy this, and if you did please leave a review! they're what keep a tired college student going. i should be back in the future with more ai fics hopefully! (crossover anyone?)


End file.
